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Shane Douglas
Troy Shane Martin (born November 21, 1964) is an American professional wrestler and promoter, better known by his ring name Shane Douglas. In the course of his career, which has spanned two decades, Douglas is most known for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling. During his career, Martin became a five time world champion, having held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship once and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship four times. Professional wrestling career Early years (1982–1989) Martin was trained by Dominic DeNucci in the Pittsburgh suburb of Freedom, Pennsylvania, alongside Mick Foley in the mid-1980s. He had been wrestling professionally to earn money since 1982. When he started, he used the character of Troy Orndorff, the fictional nephew of Paul Orndorff. In 1986, he wrestled Randy Savage at a WWF Superstars of Wrestling taping using his real name. He would also wrestle "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff in the debut episode of Wrestling Challenge, once again using his real name. Later that year, he began wrestling as a fan favorite for the Universal Wrestling Federation using the name Shane Douglas, which was given to him by "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert and Missy Hyatt ("Shane" coming from Martin's middle name, and "Douglas" from Michael Douglas, who at the time had just appeared in Wall Street). Douglas defeated Gilbert for the World Television Championship on August 3, 1987, but did not rise above mid-card status. Douglas soon lost the title on September 2 to Terry Taylor. Eastern / Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993–1995) Upon debuting in ECW, he initially supported the fan favorites, but then turned on Tommy Dreamer during a match in which Douglas was defending the ECW World Tag Team Championship alongside him on behalf of Johnny Gunn against Kevin Sullivan and The Tasmaniac. Douglas blamed Dreamer for the loss and turned on him, proclaiming himself as "The Franchise" of ECW, effectively becoming a foul-mouthed, incredibly arrogant villain, an attitude that would define him permanently and give him success. Another notable moment in his career was at the event The Night the Line Was Crossed, as he wrestled Terry Funk and Sabu to a one hour draw in the first-ever 3-Way Dance match. Douglas was instrumental in the development of "extreme" wrestling when he won a tournament to become the NWA World Heavyweight Champion on August 27, 1994. In an angle which only he, Tod Gordon, and Paul E. Dangerously knew about, Douglas threw down the NWA title belt before stating that he did not want to be champion of a "dead promotion". He then raised the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and declared it to be a World Heavyweight Championship—calling it the only real World Title. According to the Forever Hardcore DVD, Douglas only agreed to throw down the NWA belt after NWA president Dennis Coraluzzo buried Douglas on Mike Tenay's radio show. Shortly afterward, Eastern Championship Wrestling changed its name to Extreme Championship Wrestling. Capitalizing on the controversy that surrounded his literally "throwing down" the NWA belt and the promo following it, Douglas was encouraged to express his true feelings in interviews by the ECW bookers and began calling himself "The Franchise". This helped raise ECW's prominence in the eyes of wrestling fans and journalists and allowed it to become an alternative to WCW and the WWF. It was during this time that he formed the first version of the Triple Threat stable, aligning himself with Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko before he began feuding with The Sandman in early 1995. Sandman's valet, Woman, seemed to have aligned herself with Douglas but then turned on him to aid Sandman in defeating him for the World Heavyweight Championship. A rivalry began between Douglas and Cactus Jack, as each wished to be the one to dethrone Sandman. Shane eventually went on a tirade about the lawlessness of ECW and brought in Bill Alfonso as a troubleshooting referee to restore order. Shortly after this however, Douglas left for the WWF. Return to ECW (1996–1999) In January 1996 at the event House Party, Douglas returned to ECW and soon targeted then-World Heavyweight Champion Raven. During this time, he also had a memorable feud with Cactus Jack. Cactus was getting ready to leave for the WWF and was cutting promos encouraging Tommy Dreamer to come with him, deriding ECW's hardcore style and promoting "clean" wrestling. During several matches, he refused to wrestle hardcore. Douglas eventually pinned Cactus Jack in a match after performing a drop toe-hold onto an opened steel chair. After finding himself unsuccessful in his title shots, he began a feud with 2 Cold Scorpio, based on Douglas' lack of respect for the ECW World Television Championship. Douglas soon won the TV Title at A Matter of Respect, but lost it under a month later to Pitbull #2 at Fight the Power. Douglas eventually won the TV Title for the second time after beating Chris Jericho in a four corners match that also included former champions 2 Cold Scorpio and Pitbull #2 when The Pitbulls' manager, Francine, turned on them and aided Douglas. Douglas, with Francine, went on to feud with Pitbull #2 for the rest of 1996 and, by year's end, reformed the Triple Threat with new members Chris Candido and "Primetime" Brian Lee before later adding Bam Bam Bigelow when Lee left ECW. Doublas would go on to hold the TV Title for a year before losing it to Taz at Wrestlepalooza 1998. He then turned his sights on World Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk and, at Hardcore Heaven, in a rematch from The Night the Line Was Crossed, Douglas defeated Sabu (who had beaten Funk a week earlier for the title in a barbed wire deathmatch) and Terry Funk in a three way dance to win the World Heavyweight Title for the second time. In October, he briefly lost it to Bam Bam Bigelow, but regained it 15 days later at November to Remember 1998, held in his hometown of Pittsburgh. With the exception of these two weeks, he would reign as champion until January 1999, finally losing the title to Taz at Guilty as Charged 1999, whom he had feuded with throughout 1998. He eventually became a face and allied with former nemesis Tommy Dreamer against The Impact Players (Justin Credible and Lance Storm), defeating them at Living Dangerously before finally leaving for WCW due to differences with Paul Heyman. Hardcore Homecoming and other reunion events (2005-2009) In mid-2005, Martin conceived and, alongside Jeremy Borash, promoted and booked Hardcore Homecoming, a series of Extreme Championship Wrestling reunion events. The first event occurred on June 10, two days before World Wrestling Entertainment's own ECW reunion show, One Night Stand. The final show occurred on November 5. On April 9, 2009, it was announced that Martin and Nite Owl Production were to promote a follow up to Hardcore Homecoming called November to Remember: The Final Chair Shot. Originally, the event was to occur in 2008 on the anniversary of the original Hardcore Homecoming event, but the date was rescheduled to coincide with an American Cancer Society charity event hosted by Douglas' former valet Francine. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **Belly to belly suplex **''Pittsburgh Plunge'' (Fisherman buster) *'Signature moves' **Diving crossbody **Dropkick **Inverted atomic drop **Inverted suplex slam **Neckbreaker **Neck snap **Piledriver **Vertical suplex, sometimes while delayed *'Managers' **Francine **Kimona Wanalaya *'Nicknames' **"The Franchise" *'Entrance themes' **"Perfect Strangers" by Deep Purple Championships and accomplishments *'Eastern Championship Wrestling / Extreme Championship Wrestling' **ECW World Heavyweight Championship (4 times) **ECW World Television Championship (2 times)